2012

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Benade, L.W., From Technicians to Teachers: Ethical Teaching in the Context of Globalized Education Reform., (Continuum International : New York)
2012

From Technicians to Teachers provides theoretical and practical reasons for suggesting that widespread, international curriculum reform of the post-1990 period need not deprofessionalise teaching. The widely held deprofessionalisation thesis is both compelling and fatalistic, leading to a despairing sense that teachers are either no more than technicians, or that they can be reprofessionalised through definitions of ‘effective teachers' promoted by the reforms. However, there are many teachers who do not see their work in either of these ways.

The book is structured around an in-depth case study detailing the implementation of The New Zealand Curriculum in that nation - one of the best international examples of neoliberal reform. Benade argues that curriculum policy can and should be analysed critically, while pointing out the dangers for ethical teachers that can exist in national or state curricula.

Energising and inspiring, this book reminds teachers and teacher educators that although they work in a globalised context, their own role is fundamental and has a profoundly ethical basis, despite the negative impacts of three decades of education reform.

Intercultural dialogue is a concept and discourse that dates back to the 1980s. It is the major means for managing diversity and strengthening democracy within Europe and beyond. It has been adopted by the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe as the basis for interreligious and interfaith initiatives and has become increasingly associated with a liberal theory of modernity and internationalism that presupposes freedom, democracy, human rights and tolerance. It is now the dominant paradigm for 'cultural policy' and the educational basis for the development of intercultural understanding. Governments have placed their hope in intercultural education as the way to avoid the worst excesses of globalization, especially exclusion and marginalization, and the problems of xenophobia and racism that afflict European societies. Interculturalism, Education and Dialogue is an international collection by renowned scholars who examine the ideological underpinnings of the European model and its global applications. It explores the historical, philosophical and educational dimensions of intercultural dialogue.

In the World Library of Educationalists series, international experts themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces - extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and/practical contributions - so the world can read them in a single manageable volume.

Michael A. Peters has spent the last 30 years researching, thinking and writing about some of the key and enduring issues in education. He has contributed over 60 books (authored, co-authored and edited) and 500 articles to the field.

In Education, Philosophy and Politics, Michael A. Peters brings together 15 of his key writings in one place, including chapters from his best-selling books and articles from leading journals. Starting with a specially written Introduction, which gives an overview of Michael's career and contextualises his selection, the essays are then arranged thematically to create a pathway of a way of thinking in philosophy of education which is forward looking but takes account of tradition and the past. The subjects of the chapters include;

Wittgenstein Studies
Philosophical Critique of Modernity
French Poststructuralism
Jean-Francois Lyotard
Foucault & Deleuze
Derrida
American Pragmatism
Rorty
Cavell
Philosophy and racism
Through this book, readers can follow the themes and strands that Michael A. Peters has written about for over three decades and clearly see his important contribution to the field of education.

Peters, Michael A., Obama and The End of the American Dream: Essays in Political and Economic Philosophy, (Sense : Rotterdam)
2012

The American Dream that crystallized around James Truslow Adams' The Epic of America originally formulated in the early 1930s and was conditioned by a decade of complexity and contradiction, of big government projects, intensely fierce nationalism, the definition of the American way, and a distinctive collection of American iconic narratives has had the power and force to successively reshape America for every new generation. Indeed, Adam's dream of opportunity for each according to ability or achievement shaped against the old class culture of Europe emphasizes a vision of social order in which each person can succeed despite their social origins. Barack Obama, a skillful rhetorician and intelligent politician, talks of restoring the American and has used its narrative resources to define his campaign and his policies. In a time of international and domestic crisis, of massive sovereign debt, of the failure of neoliberalism, of growing inequalities, the question is whether the American Dream and the vision of an equal education on which it rests can be revitalized.

Roberts, P., From West to East and Back Again An Educational Reading of Hermann Hesse’s Later Work, (Sense Publishers)
2012

Of all the great Western novelists of the twentieth century, the German writer Hermann Hesse is arguably one of the most important for educationists. Paying particular attention to Hesse’s last novel, The Glass Bead Game, and its immediate predecessor, The Journey to the East, this book suggests that Hesse was a man of the West who turned to the idea of ‘the East’ in seeking to understand himself and his society. From these later texts a rich, complex theory of educational transformation emerges. From West to East and Back Again examines the role of dialogue and uncertainty in the transformative process, considers utopian and ritualistic elements in Hesse’s work, and explores the notion of education serving as a bridge between life and death. Hesse’s novels address philosophical themes and questions of enduring significance, and this book will appeal to all who share an interest in human striving and growth.